On January 1, 2006, the first day of the new Medicare prescription-drug program, brought much confusion to several drugstores in Chinatown. Many patients waited twice as long to have their identity verified because they had not received their new Medicare cards.

Peter Lau, a long-time pharmacist in Confucius Plaza, said that since January 1 fell on a Sunday, the actual day that the new policy commenced, was Monday, January 2. Many elderly people, who had not yet received the new prescription cards issued by the insurance company, came with only the letters. However, some of these letters contained incorrect information or said nothing about their prescription. Even those with prescription cards sometimes could not be located in the computer database. Without being identified in the system, their prescription could not be filled.

Lau said that January 2nd was still considered a holiday for government and insurance companies, so no one of authority was there to answer questions. To meet the needs of elderly patients, some drugstores opted to fill prescription first and key in information later. Even so, many people waited twice as long to get what they needed.

Peter Kuo, who owns a drugstore in Flushing, Queens, admitted that it was an exhausting day. The difficulty of logging into the government system, he said, only made matters worse. Kuo was worried that on January 3 – the day when many people returned to work – would attract even more people and cause more problems.

Ms. Lin from St. Margaret’s House near Chinatown, had no prescription card, but needed some medication. She showed up in a drugstore with only a letter from insurance company.

According to Lin, many residents in her senior house have not received their cards and are at their wit’s end as to what to do. She called the new policy “a hassle” for everybody.

Mr. Tsai, however, had no problem having his prescription filled with a new card. He said that he had followed all announcements closely and filled out many of the forms by himself; therefore he was quite comfortable with the new policy. He said that the new policy is really not much different from the old one as long as you “get the gist of it.”